Chapter 167 — The Decisive Battle

Yet that black qi, still hurtling forward, grew ever denser and blacker, its baleful force increasing rather than diminishing. Amid a faint roaring howl, this black arrow split the sky, shattered countless golden barriers, and astonishingly drove straight to the very face of Reverend Pu Cheng.

The chilling cold, the hideous visage—as if right before his eyes, out of the deepest darkness!

Reverend Pu Cheng closed his eyes and joined his palms, softly chanting Buddhist incantations—light and quick, like song yet not song, like speech yet not speech. That "Great Compassion Golden Wheel," slowly revolving in midair and radiating ten thousand beams of golden light, descended from above his head and came to rest before Pu Cheng, the true forms of the Buddha and the Arhats together facing this ferocious demon such as the world had not seen since ancient times.

In the golden light, their countenances seemed both compassionate and stern—compassionate with pity for all things under heaven, stern with the fierce resolve to subdue demons and slay. Who could say which face was the Buddha's true visage?

The low chanting of sutras rose from soft to loud, in an instant resounding through heaven and earth!

Blazing golden light erupted forth, too dazzling for the eye to behold, like a heaven full of Buddha-flame consuming all things, engulfing every trace of black before it and raising up a vast golden orb in midair. Such a magnificent spectacle was truly rare in this world; all above the sea of clouds were shaken, awed by the peerless power of Buddha.

Yet just as the crowd stood dumbstruck, that uncanny black—which seemed to have been subdued by the matchless power of the great Buddha—astonishingly flickered forth once more from within the golden radiance, stubbornly resisting. Amid all that blazing splendor, it was like a slender black needle, piercing into the Great Compassion Golden Wheel.

Upon that supreme Buddhist treasure, the Buddha's countenance, so compassionate before, was suddenly and eerily crossed by a streak of black. Almost at the same instant, the solemn chanting that filled the sky abruptly ceased, and the clamorous world fell into a strange stillness.

Every gaze instantly converged upon the two figures within that golden light.

A flicker of pain crossed Reverend Pu Cheng's face, and that wisp of black qi, as if granted new life, swiftly swelled from its former thread-like thinness, gradually taking shape and revealing the figure of the Beast Sovereign.

The black qi rose higher and higher, and the righteous cultivators all changed color. From afar, the Beast Sovereign's face still showed no expression; even his eyes remained cold as ever. Now upon the Golden Wheel, the visage of the Buddha's image began to show that eerie black, growing heavier and heavier, and the once compassionate and serene countenance grew fierce, ever more hideous.

Reverend Pu Cheng's expression changed drastically. His face darkened, and with a low shout, his monk's robes billowed though no wind blew, his figure seeming in an instant to swell. As if provoked, the golden light filling the sky suddenly reversed, emitting a sharp, hissing whistle as it rushed back before Pu Cheng and swiftly condensed into a golden orb the size of a palm, golden rays darting within it, almost like the sun in the heavens—even from afar one could sense the surging Buddha-power within.

Once again, the solemn sound of chanting rose in the sky.

The golden orb flashed with dazzling brilliance and slowly advanced. Under the urging of this solemn and majestic Buddhist power, the black qi upon the Buddha's countenance on the Great Compassion Golden Wheel gradually faded and began to return to normal. The Beast Sovereign, too, seemed to sense something, and his expression shifted slightly.

Just as the golden orb finally came into contact with the Great Compassion Golden Wheel, the golden light suddenly drew inward, and the entire treasure wheel seemed to turn transparent, as though a ray of sunset glow had at last burst forth. Buddhist power, flowing like liquid, poured out from within like a long-dormant volcano, flickering with countless golden rays and the dazzling true words of all the Buddhas.

In an instant, the entire sky became a golden ocean; golden brilliance surged across heaven and earth until no other color could be seen. In such a resplendent sea of light, it seemed no demon or fiend could possibly survive.

Save for—a single finger, dimly glimpsed!

In that world swallowed by boundless Buddha-light, deep within the golden glow, there was still a wisp of black qi, fine as smoke and dust, drifting lightly upward, flickering in and out of being, now visible, now not. It spiraled to the front of the Great Compassion Golden Wheel and gently touched upon the Buddha's countenance—upon the brow of that kind and compassionate face.

That single touch was like a grain in the vast ocean, like a mustard seed within Mount Sumeru—so utterly insignificant compared to the Buddha-light filling the sky. Yet Reverend Pu Cheng's face drained in an instant, his whole countenance turning ashen, like dead embers.

And so, all present saw that within the splendor, heaven and earth suddenly quaked, the Buddha-light convulsed, and that monk who looked so like an immortal spat out a great mouthful of blood with a retching cry, staining red the treasure wheel before him.

The wild wind quietly died away; the chaotic world grew still, and the golden light gently dissolved in wavering drifts. Reverend Pu Cheng's lips trembled faintly, his body seeming to stagger as he stepped back, but Fa Cheng and the others had already rushed up to support him.

Reverend Pu Cheng smiled faintly and bitterly, and facing the void ahead, joined his palms and said, "Benefactor, your dharma-power is mighty indeed—truly such as I have never seen in all my life. I am in awe, in awe!"

Upon Heaven-Reaching Peak of Mount Canglan, countless righteous disciples broke into an uproar.

In midair, the golden light receded and the black qi was reborn, as though leaping forth from the void. With a shrill cry, that colossal demonic beast reappeared—and truly, it was hard to fathom how a body so immense had gone utterly unseen during such a fierce contest of magic, and now came so vividly to life once more.

And atop its head, that figure whose presence made every righteous cultivator under heaven turn pale with dread looked even paler now, and upon that cold face there showed for the first time a faint hint of weariness. Yet his eyes remained cold as ever. Still, when his gaze fell upon Reverend Pu Cheng's figure, he was at last slightly moved, and gave a cold snort.

"The cultivation arts of the Central Plains truly do possess their extraordinary qualities."

Reverend Pu Cheng shook his head slightly. He had meant to offer a few words of persuasion, but seeing the other's expression, he knew it would be useless, and so, supported by Fa Cheng and the others, he withdrew.

Of the three great leaders of the righteous path, two had now suffered setbacks at the hands of this mysterious and uncanny demon. For a time, every face upon Heaven-Reaching Peak turned pale. And on the beast-demons' side, ten thousand beasts roared in unison, their ferocity and momentum surging high.

It was then that a roar came soaring up from behind the crowd, piercing the sky. Beneath the Yuheng Hall of Heaven-Reaching Peak, in the waters of the Cold Ice Pool, a great vortex suddenly appeared. The water spun faster and faster, more and more violently, and that roar—like a dragon's chant, like a tiger's cry—grew louder and louder, until it forcibly drowned out the voices of all those countless beast-demons ahead.